Mayer power: Yahoo stock ticks up 3% on better-than-expected earnings

Yahoo’s stock price is taking a nice stroll upwards, ticking up more than 3 percent in after-hours trading following a better-than-expected earnings report today.

The company has been under an incredible amount of scrutiny since former Google all-star Marissa Mayer took over as CEO in July. Notably, Mayer has reshuffled her executive team, with the appointment of Henrique de Castro as COO, Ken Goldman as CFO, Ron Bell as general counsel, Jacqueline Reses as EVP of people and development, and Kathy Savitt as CMO. She’s been working toward making Yahoo a tech company rather than a media company. And she’s been doing all this while having a baby.

Today’s results for the third quarter looked good. Excluding traffic acquisition costs (“Revenue ex-TAC”), Yahoo had revenue of $1.089 billion. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $0.35 per share.

Analysts expected revenue ex-TAC of $1.08 billion and net income of 26 cents per share.

“Yahoo had a solid third quarter, and we are encouraged by the stabilization in search and display revenue,” Marissa Mayer said in a statement. “We’re taking important steps to position Yahoo for long-term success, and we’re confident that our focus on quality and improving the user experience will drive increased value for our advertisers, partners, and shareholders.”

The company lists the following as third-quarter 2012 highlights:

— Display revenue ex-TAC was $452 million, flat compared to the third quarter of 2011.

— GAAP display revenue was $506 million, a 1 percent increase compared to $502 million for the third quarter of 2011.

— Search revenue ex-TAC was $414 million, an 11 percent increase compared to $374 million for the third quarter of 2011.

— GAAP search revenue was $473 million, a 1 percent increase compared to $467 million for the third quarter of 2011.

Yahoo photo via Yahoo/Flickr